


Touch of Gold

by snowywintertales



Series: Christmas Holidays [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 15:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7646983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowywintertales/pseuds/snowywintertales
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the first day of Christmas, Lily goes into great lengths to avoid James Potter. Part 1/2 of the Christmas Holidays series. J/L.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Touch of Gold

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written in 2005 for Ria, who suggested I give Lily/James a try. I've since revised it, removing typos and silly mistakes.
> 
> It's the first part in a two part series that take place in the same universe.

**Touch of Gold**

Lily was standing quietly, rocking back and forth on her heels. Her cloak in her right hand and her Gryffindor scarf in the other, she stood on her tip-toes and looked through the high window of the Hall. It looked cold. She'd stayed behind for Christmas this year, as her family was holidaying to Majorca. They'd been invited by the parents of Petunia and her new boyfriend, Vernon, who had been keen to impress her parents. She'd never really stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas before.

After a moment's hesitation, she threw her cloak on and tucked her scarf safely around her neck. Then she leaned against the giant oak door, which easily gave under her weight. And suddenly, Lily found herself outside.

The sky was of a dark grey, making the clouds - which were of the same colour - unnoticeable. Millions of snowflakes were softly making their way towards the grounds, which had already been covered in a thick layer of snow.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one who had thought of going outside on the first day of Christmas. Students, all of different houses, were milling about the grounds. Some were engaged in rather violent snowball fights, while others were simply sitting by the lake or on the grounds, quietly conversing.

Lily walked on, her footsteps leaving marks on the fresh fallen snow. The cold wind touched her face playfully, flushing her cheeks. As she neared the lake, she noticed a group of three boys. She narrowed her eyes slightly. They looked familiar. Surely, that one there looked a lot like ...

Her eyes widened and she looked around frantically for a place to hide. It was ridiculous, really; she was seventeen, Head Girl, an adult. She did not _hide_ when things were a little bit uncomfortable.

But yet she found herself clambering into a nearby oak tree, looking for a branch large enough to carry her and hide her from view at the same time. Finally finding one, she settled herself on it rather uncomfortably. Curiously, she looked through the curtain of snow that covered the branch in front of her.

Potter and his friends were engaged in a very fierce snowball fight. It involved tackling, wrestling and eventually pelting your enemy with snow. They seemed to have fun doing it, though. One of the reasons Lily wasn't down there was because she was not looking forward to being sat upon by Potter, who was currently doing the exact same to Black. Lily was sure that she could easily make a list of females who would have done anything to be in the position Black was in now.

Potter had actually been ... likable this year. He had stopped asking her to go to Hogsmeade with him every other day (a thing he used to do even when there was no Hogsmeade weekend) and he was a very good and responsible Head Boy. Lily had found herself liking his funny jokes, witty comebacks and intelligence. It was as if she was getting to know him all over again.

The main reason she was hiding, however, was because she _liked_ Potter, which was just so incredibly _stupid,_ because he was still such a prat, and she really didn't want him to know.

That wouldn't stop her from watching him, quietly, though.

She leaned forward, pushing the branches carefully to the side. In her eagerness, however, she leaned a bit too far, and she slid forward, losing her balance. Barely suppressing a surprised shout, she managed to hang onto the branch with her hands. The tree shook with her efforts, dropping snow off its branches in protest.

Meanwhile, several feet below, Remus Lupin stopped trying to pepper Sirius with snow, and was curiously looking up at the tree.

'Did you hear that?' he asked, frowning.

Lily gulped, her face flushing as she hopelessly tried to gather enough courage to sling her leg back over the branch. Eventually - after what seemed like a century, but was really only a couple of seconds - she managed to sling herself forward, her right leg settling on the branch. She smiled triumphantly.

Meanwhile, James Potter had pushed aside the branches hiding the stem of the tree, and came face to face with a shiny, black shoe. He blinked, noticing that it seemed to be attached to a leg, which was moving. Frowning, he yanked at it.

Shocked, Lily found herself toppling over the branch and falling onto very surprised James Potter.

Remus and Sirius burst into hysterics, laughing so hard they were clutching their sides. And no one could blame them. It really was a sight to see, the Head Boy and Head Girl lying on top of each other, both surprised and very red. Finally, Black stopped laughing enough to tell them that they were going to visit Peter in the Hospital Wing. He and Remus soon disappeared out of sight.

Lily, somehow, couldn't really pay much attention to them.

Potter's arms had encircled themselves around her waist somewhere in the fall, and there was heat spreading from where his fingertips came in contact with her robes. He was looking at her, surprised, and she noticed for the first time that tiny flecks of gold surrounded the hazel in his eyes. His black mop of hair looked even more tousled than usual, one strand messily touching his forehead, almost reaching his eyes. His cheeks were flushed.

He looked rather sexy.

'Er, Potter,' Lily said firmly, trying to ignore the soft tone her voice had taken. 'Thank you. Could you - er - let go?'

Instead of listening to her - like he should have done - he blinked, his lips twitching in amusement, revealing a dimple in his left cheek she'd never noticed before. And then he leaned forward, kissing her softly.

He tasted like snow, like grey clouds, like ice cream. Lily's eyes fluttered close of their own accord.

James broke the kiss, looking at her from under his glasses, which were pressed up against her cheek.

'Right,' she said, because there wasn't really much else to say.

James winked at her.

Lily decided that maybe, staying in the castle this Christmas wasn't going to be so bad after all.


End file.
